6 remodeling tips to make your home more fire resistant

Share this:

With its stuccoed exterior, this fire-resistant Tuscan-style villa designed by Wade Davis and built by Allen Construction replaced a farmhouse lost to a wildfire in Santa Barbara. (Photo by Erin Feinblatt)

“The moment that we have a disaster, everybody wants to do something about it, and then a year goes by, and everybody forgets, which is unfortunate,” said Abeer Sweis, a Santa Monica-based architect and half of the full-service boutique firm SweisKloss that specializes in design and construction. “The best time to do these things is when it’s fresh and on everybody’s mind.”

Related links

“If you’re going to remodel and spend money on your property, the best thing you can do is clear the brush around your house,” said Eric Johnson, regional director of Allen Construction, which has experience rebuilding homes after fires in the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas over the last 35 years.

A managed yard won’t stop a fire. But Johnson said it can slow it down “giving you more time to get out and the firefighters more time to get to your home if it’s a part of a major fire.”

He added, “We’ve had homes in Santa Barbara where the fire blew over [and didn’t burn them] because it didn’t have anything to grab a hold of.”

Homeowners should keep a defensible perimeter around the home free of fuel such as dead trees and shrubs, fallen twigs, leaf litter and pine needles. And if you’re planting or landscaping this season, Sweis added, “put things in that are more fire-resistant than some of the grasses we see out there that burn quickly and add fuel.”

Fill the gap with deciduous, low-growing and moisture-rich foliage such as Western redbud, stonecrop and daylily.

When it comes to the structure, there is no single solution.

2. The Roof

“People change their roofs all the time, so that is definitely a time where they can put on a Grade-A non-combustible roof, and asphalt shingles are non-combustible,” Sweis said. “So it doesn’t have to be a very expensive roof.”

But don’t stop there.

Consider a fireproof underlayment such as DensDeck so that even if the new roof was to burn, the next layer keeps the flames from reaching the attic.

“We’ve even done ridge vents that are part of the roofing at the top of the ridge so there are lots of ways to go about it,” Sweis said. “There are systems out there like a fan in your attic that helps circulate that air and draw it out so you can have fewer openings.”

5. Exterior walls

Another alternative to keeping walls non-combustible is to apply stucco, which is best because it takes about an hour for it to start burning.

“Anybody who’s planning on redoing the siding on their house should really consider not doing a wood siding at this point, and I know it’s really hard for people because they want to do what goes with the style of the house,” Sweis said. “But there are fiberglass sidings out there now that are not going to be as combustible.”

Other options include aluminum siding that looks like wood and maintenance free.

If you can’t live without wood, she suggests Ipe shiplap siding.

“Those are things they need to consider as they replace materials on their home, that they’re putting something in that’s non-combustible,” she said. “And there are a lot of choices out there.”

6. Windows

Among the weakest links of a home’s envelope are windows.

“Most everybody is doing the whole dual-glaze windows because it’s energy efficient and less noisy and all this wonderful stuff. But if you take it a step further and do tempered glass, you’re going to give yourself an extra layer of protection,” Sweis said.

Although it costs more, tempered glass windows can withstand temperatures of up to 470 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s required in glass installed above a staircase, tub or in a door.

The frame is another consideration.

Sweiss recommends people go with aluminum, steel or fiberglass and avoid windows framed in wood or vinyl.

Los Angeles Daily News reporter Sandra Barrera has been writing about entertainment and lifestyle topics since 1998. Before joining the Daily News in 2000, she was a reporter for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario where she helped launch the now-defunct entertainment magazine 72HOURS as its music writer. Her reporting career at the Daily News has included fashion coverage from the red carpet at Hollywood's biggest awards shows, home and garden trends with a particular focus on earth-friendly alternatives and a wide range of events, from theater to the latest happenings at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.